Alabama
SEC Championships
Alabama Falls to Auburn, 3-2, in the Quarterfinals of the SEC Men’s Golf Championship
4/27/2024 12:46:00 PM | Men's Golf
The ninth-ranked Crimson Tide dropped a narrow decision on the final hole to the nation’s top-ranked team
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – The No. 9 Alabama men's golf team fell to No. 1-ranked Auburn in a narrow 3-2 decision at the SEC Men's Golf Championship Quarterfinals on Saturday morning. The match came down to the final hole and was not decided until a clinching putt by the Tigers.
The Crimson Tide will now await its NCAA Regional destination, which will be announced Wednesday, May 1, at 1 p.m. CT on the Golf Channel.
Match Play Highlights
- The Tide's two points both came from matches that took extra holes to decide
- JP Cave defeated Brendan Valdes in 20 holes while Jonathan Griz getting the better of Carson Bacha in 19 holes
- Griz rallied after trailing the entire match and was 2-down after 15 holes before winning three of the final four holes including capturing the point on No. 18 and 19 for the win
- Canon Claycomb fell to SEC individual medalist winner Jackson Koivun, 1up, while Thomas Ponder dropped a 2&1 result to J.M. Butler
- Jones Free fell 4&3 to Josiah Gilbert to round out the match play scoring
Head Coach Jay Seawell Comments
"This is the best week of the year. When you just look at the rankings anyone can see that the SEC Championship is the best college golf has to offer. This is always a tough week, but a great week. You work all year to get to this point and put your team in position to win a championship. I am really proud of how we fought all week long. We didn't have our best stuff but the boys kept fighting. It's really hard to get to reach match play and I thought we battled hard to earn our place here. We took on a very good Auburn team and looked down-and-out, but rallied and I thought we had a great shot to beat them, but just couldn't get over that hump.
"This team just continues to write their own story of who they want to be. People continue to write about Nick (Dunlap) leaving, but this team has showed so much heart through so much adversity. How they handled themselves throughout the tournament and the fight they showed today in match play was incredible and it really earned my respect. We were able to take the nation's top-ranked team to the wire and let it slip away. We will take our lessons from match play and I told the team is this was the end of this tournament, but not the end of our season. We now have to go back, focus on exams, regroup and get ready to compete at NCAA Regionals in a couple of weeks."
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Players Mentioned
